Taalk Aur
General information Phonology Consonants There are no fricatives. Bilabial and alveolar nasals can be voiced or unvoiced. Voiced nasals, retroflex consonants and [ j ] can be geminated ; vowels preceeding geminated consonants are always short. Vowels There are two diphthongs : ai '''and '''au. There is a distinction between short and long vowels. The mid-central vowel is always short. Since there is lenght distinction for both vowels and consonants, there are minimal pairs like : ama = to love, amma = mum, aama = here , amaa = loved , ammaa = come here ! Alphabet Long vowels are written as double letters : "aa", "ii" and "uu". The mid-central vowel is written "e". Geminate consonants are written as double letters : pp, tt, thth, kk, xx, jj, whwh, ww, rr, rhrh, ll, lhlh and lyly. Phonotactics Stress Stress is predictable : Words with stress on the last syllable #Monosyllabic words ( ta - to stay ) #Place adverbs ( aama - here ) #Future and desiderative verbs ( panhkau - will make ) Words with stress on the penultimate syllable The majority of words have stress on the penultimate syllable ( ama - to love ) Words with stress on the antepenult syllable #Words of four or more syllables having short vowels in their last three syllables ( maatulhtaku - mill ) #Words of three or more syllables having a diphthong in their antepenult syllable ( kaukaalte - quickly ) Grammar Taak Aur grammar tends to be regular. Articles Indefinite article is not present. The definite article is al ( an before words whose first letter is l ), used for both singular and plural words. Nouns Nouns are declensed by case ( nominative, genitive, dative, accusative and locative ) and by number ( singular and plural ). There are three declensions : the first, whose nominative ends with a nasal consonant, the second, whose nominative ends with another consonant, and the third, whose nominative ends with a vowel. First Declension Second Declension Third Declension Examples Irregular Nouns There are just three irregular nouns : whamuu,' '''meaning person, '''pilh', meaning son or daughter, and wutha, meaning fluid substance. Their declension, really different from regular one, is given in the table below. Adjectives Adjectives follow noun's declension. They ever come after the noun and they must agree with noun's case and number : wutha klhana - blue liquid, manu talluxu '- tall man's, '''whemuwhu xetalluxu '- tall men's. Verbs Verbs are simple and quite regular. There are two tenses ( present and past ), four moods ( indicative, imperative, desiderative and infinitive ) and two numbers ( singular and plural ). Verbs do not conjugate according to person. Infinitive Infinitive always ends with "a" : '''kalla - to call, bajja '- to buy, '''ama '- to love. Indicative Present Present indicative has two forms, singular and plural. Singular form is created by the desinence "aa" to verb's stem, so the only difference between infinitive and present indicative is the final vowel's lenght. Plural form is created by adding the desinence "aang" : 'kallaa''' - call ( singular subject ), kallaang '- call ( plural subject ). Past Singular past is formed by adding the desinence "elhe", while plural past desinence is "elheng" : '''kallelhe '- called ( singular subject ), 'kallelheng '- called ( plural subject ). Desiderative Desiderative verbs have the meaning of "wanting to (verb)". The stress falls ever on the last syllable. Present Singular present desiderative is formed by adding the desinence "kau", while plural desinence is "kiing" : 'kallau '- would call ( singular subject ), 'kalliing '- would call ( plural subject ). Past Past desiderative is formed analytically by adding the adverb "ja" ( before ) to present desiderative forms : '''ja kallau - would have called ( singular subject ), ja kalliing - would have called ( plural subject ). Imperative Imperative is simply formed by putting the emphatic pronouns after the infinite verb : kalla thxii - call (you) ! Irregular verbs The only irregular verbs are 'etha '- to be, '''ta' '- to stay, '''lha '- to walk and 'tuula '- to receive/to gather. Their conjugation pattern, shown in the table, is really different from the regular one. Vocabulary Example text Category:Languages